Attorney General Kris Mayes is refusing to bow to a federal move that could leave thousands in the lurch, supporting legal pushback against the cancellation of a vital program for low-income youth. According to AZ Family, Mayes has aligned with a cohort of 21 other state attorneys general to back plaintiffs fighting the shuttering of the Job Corps, the program in question offers not only career training but also provides housing and supports young Americans from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Trump's Administration has made sweeping claims about cost-cutting, yet Attorney General Mayes's stance is quite clear: "President Trump promised to lower costs for Arizonans. Instead he's firing young workers and literally evicting these young people from their homes. Many of them in Arizona have nowhere else to go," which reflects the gravity of the decision on local communities, with the potential to dislocate many. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently favored the plaintiffs with a preliminary injunction, opposing the program's termination, and the current legal filings by Mayes and peers underscore the need for this to continue.
The overarching implication of the Trump Administration's actions is stark, with nearly 100 Job Corps campuses nationwide facing closure, which would not only cast many into homelessness but would also tear away their chance at professional and personal development. The brief, as it was put forward, emphasizes that "in the sixty years since Congress created Job Corps, millions of young Americans from low-income backgrounds have been served by the program’s unique combination of education, training, housing, healthcare and community."
In Arizona, the fallout is particularly acute – with approximately 300 students at the Phoenix Job Corps relying on the program for both employment and accommodation, and more than half of the students living for free in dorms. The threat extends to Acosta Job Corps Center in Tucson, where over 130 students have been impacted as reported by AZ Family, their narrative is a thread in a larger tapestry of youths whose educational trajectories, and indeed their very homes, hang by a thread. Further exasperating the issue, the closure would cut critical training programs like the Home Builder Institute in Arizona, exacerbating skilled worker shortages in the state, a concern echoed by the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association President.
Agitation for the continuation of Job Corps resonates with the echoes of necessity – it is not just about jobs, not solely about roofs over vulnerable heads, but about upholding a legacy of empowering the underprivileged American youths through comprehensive support systems woven over decades, which now face the possibility of being unraveled by administrative scissors.
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